Frankenstein - Week One

When someone brings up the 'gothic' in todays times, we'd usually jump to thoughts of groups of teenagers dressed all in black, scowling at the world and hiding from the sun, but it's much older and a lot more complex than that. 

In terms of the gothic as it appears in contemporary culture, the first two things that popped into my head were The Woman in Black and Sleepy Hollow.

The Woman in Black centers around a young lawyer from London, Arthur Kipps, who has to go to a small town to arrange a sale of an old estate called the El Marsh house, left when the owner of the house sudden passed. What Arthur doesn't realize is that there is a specter that resides in the house who is the cause of many deaths of children from the nearby town. The Woman in Black, as a whole, is a classic example of the gothic because it covers many of the elements that make up the gothic genre, like the main character, after living in London his whole life, finds himself in an unfamiliar house, that seems far removed from the rest of society. There is a definite air of mystery and suspense in the air as he explores the massive amounts of stuff that the woman who owned the house left behind and the entire film is dominated by a dark and gloomy atmosphere, which sets and keeps the mood for the entirety of the film. 

In a similar vein, Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow is a good example of a gothic film, as well as an exaggerated gothic film. Normally, gothic films have a more serious tone to them, as somebody has usually died, or the threat of death looms above the character's heads so there's very little room for comedy or much lightheartedness. Sleepy Hollow manages to keep a fairly gothic atmosphere, through the colors, the isolation and unfamiliarity, as well as the supernatural elements that pervade the storyline, but because it is also Tim Burton, there is underlying humor that comes with the dialogue and actions of the character that show that a movie can still be true to the nature of the gothic genre and yet twist it in new and interesting ways without detracting from the overall theme of the film.